Shugo Chara Get-Together Party
by PurpleSara
Summary: All of our beloved main Shugo Chara characters are grown up, married, and have children! In this story, they gather together to talk about old times, catch up with news, etc... but I wonder how the children will get along? :)
1. Wake Up, Akito!

**Hullo guys! If you've read "It's a Wonderful Life," this is kind of a continuation, only it involves the rest of the main Shugo Chara characters with **_**their **_**children! I enjoyed coming up with their names and I'll certainly enjoy introducing them one by one! I hope you'll enjoy this, too!**

**I do not own Shugo Chara! or the characters (except for the ones I made up); copyright belongs to Peach Pit.**

**NOTE: The timeline is July 2028, five years after "It's a Wonderful Life."**

* * *

_Chirp, chirp…_

…Sunshine filtered in through the window as the curtains were being drawn. The sudden sunlight disturbed the person in bed next to the window (who was without blankets) and made him squeeze his eyes shut.

A moment or two later, the same person who drew the curtains was shaking the trying-to-sleep-but-failing boy.

"_Nii-chan! _Akito_-nii-chan! _Wake up!"

Eleven-year-old Akito moaned and covered his golden eyes with the back of his wrist. "Just a few more minutes, Miu…"

Miu, his younger sister, did not comply. "No! You have to come down and help set up for the get-together party, remember?" She determinedly set to work on getting her brother up by taking his right arm and tugging it gently. Akito, seeing that getting the wanted sleep was useless, sighed and sat up in bed.

With a triumphant look on her eight-year-old face, Miu reminded Akito excitedly, "I'm so excited for this afternoon! I get to meet Mama's friends from elementary school! And there will be girls my age!" she smiled brightly at the thought.

Akito, despite his annoyance in being woken up so suddenly, smiled at Miu's excitement. Sometimes there are just some people whose happiness is contagious.

He yawned and stretched as he asked Miu, "Are Kiku and Ai up yet?"

"Yep! Everybody's up except you, Akito!" she smiled knowingly, her dark blue eyes shining. "But I suppose I can't blame you for that since you were up pretty late helping Mama with the food."

Akito nodded and yawned again as he ran a hand through his dark blue hair, which he inherited from his father. His parents and their friends have been planning a get-together party for months. He had been looking forward to the party and couldn't wait until it got here. Now that today is the assigned date for the party, July 22nd, 2028, Akito remembered his previous excitement before and gained energy from it. Suddenly he wanted to do anything he could do to help.

He jumped out of bed with an exciting fire dancing in his eyes. Miu, startled by the sudden action, stepped back and remarked, "So _nii-chan_ is all up and energized, huh? I guess my work here is done!" she gave an accomplished smile and pranced out of Akito's room, her pink hair bouncing on her shoulders.

Akito felt so excited that he didn't know what to do first. When he got his brain organized, he bounded toward his drawer and flung out his change of clothes. The somewhat loud ruckus made one small person peep out of their bed sleepily.

"What are you doing, Akito?..." he said while yawning and rubbing his eyes. He was holding open what seemed to be half of an eggshell.

Akito, half-changing into his clothes, glanced excitedly at his guardian character (yes, the very creatures Akito was so curious about!). "Don't you remember, Hakase?! Today's the get-together party with all of Mama's friends from elementary school! And I gotta help downstairs to set it up!" He stumbled over some furniture while he was getting ready.

Hakase sighed. "You're energetic, as usual…" he stepped out of his eggshell, which had a blue color with a pair of glasses and a beaker on it. Hakase had messy blue hair and had smart-looking glasses on, which covered green eyes. He was wearing an unbuttoned white lab coat, a dark blue shirt underneath it, black pants, and black shoes. He also had a beaker in his right hand, giving him the look of a scientist.

While Akito was still rummaging and making a mess, Hakase went over to the other egg, which was red and had two hands on it, and knocked, saying, "Tetsu, you'd better get up. Akito is really energetic this morning."

The egg opened and revealed a sleepy face. When he saw what Hakase was saying was true, he lifted up the top eggshell and got out. Tetsu stretched his little body and yawned, all the while staring horrifyingly at the mess Akito made. Hakase grinned at his nicely-combed red-haired, yellow-eyed partner, who was wearing a short-sleeved dark red shirt, casual black jeans and sneakers, and a white apron. He also had two hands stuck together on his head as his symbol.

Tetsu could no longer tolerate Akito's messiness. "Akito-kun! What do you think you're doing?!" he flew over to Akito, frantically trying to get his attention.

By that time, fortunately, Akito was already dressed and pretty much was done making a racket. He turned over to Tetsu, nonchalantly saying, "Why, I'm getting dressed, of course."

"That's not what I mean!" Tetsu exclaimed, flailing his arms and growing crazy at the sight of the messy room, even getting his neatly-combed hair slightly messy. "Why are you making such a mess?!"

Akito surveyed his room, suddenly realizing what his excitement had done. He looked over at Tetsu again with a sympathizing look. "I'm sorry, Tetsu. I know how much you hate disorder and messiness."

The red-haired chara gave him an eyebrow raise. "Well, I'll accept your apology. But you must clean this up!"

"Ehh?" Akito drew out disagreeably. The mess was quite like a tornado went through his room. "But I have to help Mama and the others downstairs!"

Tetsu grinned no-problem like. "Then we must clean up faster. Chara Change!"

Akito's hair became neat, as it was messy before, and two hands stuck together appeared on his head.

"Clean-Up Time!" Tetsu ordered promptly.

Akito saw the mess he made and immediately set to work, quickly but set everything neatly. Everything got done in less than a minute.

Then Akito went back to normal, his hair in the slightly-messy mode.

Tetsu sighed at his disordered hair. "You can't go downstairs like that. Here, let me comb," and, with that, there appeared out of his big apron pocket a red comb large enough for Akito's head. Even though Tetsu is small, he's very strong. He began to comb Akito's hair and in a moment was done. Tetsu smiled proudly at his work and put the comb back into his apron pocket (which can fit almost anything in there, even if it's too big for the pocket).

"Thanks, Tetsu. I guess I should be more neat and organized like you, huh?" Akito smiled appreciatively. Tetsu smiled back, blushing a bit. Then Akito was out the door, going to help his mother and sisters.

Tetsu flew back to where Hakase was sitting the whole time and sat down on the edge of the desk. Hakase had been leaning back against his egg, hands behind his head, amusingly watching the scene that occurred before him.

"You know, I think you're too strict with Akito sometimes."

Tetsu shrugged. "If Akito-kun wants to be a neat and organized person, he's just gotta learn how to get rid of his messy habits, and sometimes that takes strict instructing to do." He shot a glance at Hakase. "Sometimes I wonder if he gets his messy habits from _you…_" he said, looking at Hakase's hair with disapproval.

Hakase burst out laughing. "My hair has _always _been like this. Even if I comb it, it'll get messy again because I'm always doing science experiments. So what's the point?"

Tetsu sighed and smiled in spite of himself. "I suppose we really _are_ opposites. You're messy, and I'm tidy. It's like a contradiction, almost. But you were born out of Akito's desire to be a scientist, not to be messy. But _because _he's messy, he desired to be more neat and organized, and also to be helpful to others."

Hakase nodded contentedly. "Mm-hmm," he said, standing up and stretching himself. "I suppose we ought to go downstairs now," he remarked, looking over at Tetsu who was already flying to the door.

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**That's it for now! Be patient for me as I write the next chapter because it might take a while to think up! I hope the story sounds good so far? :)**


	2. Your Heart's Song

Akito went down the stairs carefully, so as not to make his hair messy again. The smell of toast and omelets filled his nose. He heard the sound of his parents and sisters talking, but mostly was hearing the excitable voices of his sisters' questions.

"How many children do they have?" "Are they nice?" "How did you keep in contact 'till now?" "Are there girls my age? What about boys?" "What time will they come?"

He heard his mother's soft laughter and his father's deep, cool voice answering their questions.

He finally came in the dining room, and his pink-haired mother stopped to smile teasingly at him and say, "Well, look who's finally come down!"

Akito smiled back as he saw his family's knowing smiles, Miu looking more mischievous. He took his seat next to his father, Ikuto Tsukiyomi.

"How's my only son this morning?" he asked, playfully ruffling his hair. Akito smiled up at Ikuto's handsome face behind the bangs that were now in front of his eyes. "I can't wait for this afternoon!" he told Ikuto, who replied with a chuckle and a nod.

"So I suppose you'll be willing to help this afternoon?" his mother, Amu, gave him a hinting smile.

"Of course! I'll do anything I can to help!" Akito replied energetically.

"Aww, no fair!" protested a tiny voice. "Kiku wants to help, too!"

"You and Ai can help me set up some games and activities, Kiku," replied their father.

"And Miu can help me, too, along with Akito," Amu added.

Kiku and Ai are the youngest siblings in the Tsukiyomi family. They both have dark blue hair and dark blue eyes. Kiku is six and Ai is four. Kiku always wants to do "big things" and do things that look grown-up. She's competitive when it comes to games, and is a little nosy. But she's always polite when she talks to those that are older than her.

Ai, on the other hand, is timid, quiet, and sweet. She loves to be around her daddy and shows him more affection than anybody else. Akito, personally, loves Ai the most because she's "less annoying" than his other two sisters, and Ai equally loves her "_onii-chan_." Indeed, as her name suggests, she pretty much loves everybody!

At the mention of her going to be able to help Daddy, Ai went wide-eyed, blushed, and smiled big. She would do anything she could to help him.

Breakfast was finally over. Kiku and Ai went with Ikuto while Akito and Miu helped their mother clean up. By this time Hakase and Tetsu came down and accompanied Akito, with Tetsu also helping.

"Thanks for helping, Tetsu," Amu smiled warmly at him. Tetsu blushed and bowed politely. Seeing her son's and daughter's charas reminded her of fond memories with Ran, Miki, Suu, and Dia.

Wait… daughter's?

A happy, giggly voice filled the kitchen as the tiny yellow chara helped dry the dishes with Tetsu and Hakase (Akito washed the dishes, Miu rinsed them, and Amu put them away).

"Drying dishes is so fun~!" she sang. "Since it makes people happy, that makes it all the more fun!"

Everyone smiled at her brightness, Tetsu blushing a little. The happy chara hummed a little tune that could reach into the very depths of the heart, even the depths of the coldest person on earth.

This little chara is known as Natsumi and is Miu's only chara. She hatched recently about two months ago and is born from Miu's desire to make others happy. Her orange-brown hair is always in two braids, reaching to the middle of her back, with two smiley faces to hold her hair in place. She has orange eyes and white skin, a bright yellow spaghetti-strap top with a sun on it, a yellow frilly skirt with orange frills that reaches just below her knees, and yellow flip-flops. Her egg is orange with a smiley face and sunrays on it. The most important feature of all is her sunny smile, which brightens everyone around her.

"Natsumi, what tune is that?" Hakase asked, curious.

Natsumi smiled brightly. "Oh, I don't have a name for it. I just made it up! When you're happy, your heart tends to want to sing a song that hasn't been invented before. Everyone has a different tune! I call it your "heart's song!"

"Is that so?" Hakase smiled at this new thinking. Tetsu, hearing this, also wondered at it. Right now he was feeling happy (because of Natsumi), and he wanted to hum a tune, but not a tune that's been sung before. So, guided by his heart, his throat let out his "heart's song."

Natsumi grinned when Tetsu hummed his own tune. "Tetsu-kun, your heart's song is refreshing!"

Tetsu stopped humming for a moment and smiled at Natsumi, saying, "Really? How can you tell?"

"By the sound of it, of course!" she replied, and hummed a different tune than she had hummed before.

With the thought of "heart's song" in mind, everyone started to hum their own tune until it sounded like a choir. Miu, with the same attitude as Natsumi's, smiled at the music they were making. She hoped that, no matter where she went, she would help people find their heart's song.

Ikuto, Kiku, and Ai, upon hearing the humming music, curiously went into the kitchen and found the gang happily doing their job, singing their own tunes to speed up the job a little. Ikuto smiled at his wife and two oldest children and their charas enjoying a good time. He figured Natsumi started it. He was rather fond of Natsumi because she comes to cheer him up whenever he's stressed out. He would look forward to the day when Miu becomes just like that, a light to people's darkness.

Ikuto looked down at his two youngest girls, who were enchanted by the humming. He wondered what their charas would be like someday.

Natsumi was the first to spot Ikuto and the other two girls. She called to them happily, "Ikuto-san, Kiku-chan, Ai-chan, come join us!" with a smile.

Ikuto and Kiku stepped boldly forward, while Ai, holding on to Ikuto's pant leg, being timid, was uncertain of what to do.

Even though they didn't know what was going on, Ikuto and Kiku felt the happy aura coming towards them and suddenly made them want to hum a tune. Ai, seeing that even her Papa and _onee-chan_ started to hum, also felt the aura, and started to hum her timid little tune.

Everyone had big smiles when they were finally done with the dishes. The happy energy made them show their affection. In no time Ikuto kissed Amu all over and kissed Ai, Kiku hugged her siblings with great fervency, Akito returned his sisters' hugs and hugged Ai (giving her a kiss), Amu hugged her husband and children, and Miu kissed and hugged everybody that she saw.

The charas? Natsumi, of course, hugged everybody by the cheek, and hugged the two male charas (Tetsu blushed by her warm hug). Hakase and Tetsu hugged Akito, and were much too timid to hug anybody else.

After everyone was done with their hugging and kissing spree, Amu smiled and announced, "Alright, everyone, back to work! We've only got a couple of hours until noon, the expected time everybody'll be here."

So Ikuto, Kiku, and Ai went back to working on the games and activities, and Amu, Akito, and Miu (with the charas) worked on setting up decorations, plates, silverware, napkins, etc, and making little sandwiches for lunch (the preparation for last night was for dinner).

Miu and the charas were assigned to do the sandwiches. The choices were ham and egg, cucumber and tomatoes, cheese and butter, and tonkatsu (pork cutlet).

Natsumi tried to lift a cucumber slice onto the bread. Considering her size, it'd be heavy for her. Tetsu saw the trouble and thought he'd be gentlemanly by helping her (despite his equal size, he's very strong).

"Here, Natsumi-chan, let me help you," he offered, taking the other side of the cucumber slice and helped her put it on the bread. They (Natsumi & Tetsu) kept making cucumber and tomato and tonkatsu sandwiches until they were all done. Natsumi smiled gratefully at Tetsu and said, "Thank you, Tetsu-kun! I guess you're strong when it comes to things like this. As for me, my strong point is making others happy," she giggled.

Tetsu blushed at her thanks and bowed politely.

Amu and Akito were setting up decorations like: a big banner that said, "Welcome," some balloons, stars, hearts, and little banners that said in English, "Let's party!" Then they put two tables together for the adults to eat around, and put another two tables together in another room for the children. Finally, they set up fancy paper plates, cups, napkins, and silverware on the tables.

All of the preparations were done. It was close to noon, and the children couldn't hardly wait until they got here. They all went around the house and checked once more to see that everything was in place.

Then the doorbell rang.

"That must be one of them!" Amu announced, smiling. The children were close to jumping up and down with excitement as Amu told the visitors, through the intercom, to come in.

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**That's it for this chapter! I didn't intend for it to go exactly like this, but since I got started on the "heart's song" thing, it changed into something else. I hope it wasn't too boring!**

**Once again, please be patient for the next chapter because it might take longer to think up than this one.**


	3. Ira Ira is Irritating!

_Pin pon~ _("ding dong" in Japanese)

"Come on in!" Amu told the visitors through the intercom. The children were jumping up and down with excitement.

Amu went to greet the visitors at the door, Ikuto following behind. Despite their excitement, the children were too shy to greet the guests.

The door opened. "Hey, Hina– I mean, Tsukiyomi!" said a lively male voice.

"Come in, Kuukai, Utau! And you can just call me Amu, Kuukai," she giggled. While Ikuto greeted the Soumas, Amu called to her kids, "Children! Come out; Aki-chan and Kaita-kun are here!"

I haven't mentioned this before, but since the Souma kids and Tsukiyomi kids are cousins, they've met quite a few times before, so they were used to them.

At the mention of their cousins and uncle and aunt being here, the Tsukiyomi children stepped boldly forward. Aki and Kaita saw them from the genkan (a place where Japanese people take off their shoes) and immediately rushed to take off their shoes.

Aki was the first to greet them. "Hey, Akito," she said boyishly and grinned. She nodded to his sisters in acknowledgment. Miu smiled back, Kiku bowed politely, and Ai just stood shyly behind Akito.

"Hello, Aki-chan and Kaita-kun," Akito replied, smiling. "I'm glad you made it."

Aki, Akito, and Kaita are the three oldest children amongst the whole gang, respectively, so they get along quite well. Aki is a competitive, tomboyish girl with brown hair and purple eyes. Kaita is a slightly timid, reluctant boy with blond hair and green eyes.

"What are you saying?" Kaita exclaimed, hitting Akito playfully. "We live only 15 minutes from here by car, so of course we would make it!"

Akito smiled. Just then a small, purple chara came out from behind Aki, followed by a white chara. Natsumi spotted them and exclaimed, "Ah, look, it's Yumi-chan and Hachiko-chan!" and flew over to them. Hakase and Tetsu followed slowly behind and the charas made a group of their own.

Yumi is a fashionable, girly, slightly snobbish character, born out of Aki's desire to be more girlish and fashionable. Hachiko is a veterinarian character with short, light blue hair. She even owns a golden retriever!

"Hello, everyone," Hachiko greeted them pleasantly while stroking her golden retriever. The dog wagged her tail in response.

Natsumi, enamored with the dog, came over to her and asked Hachiko, "May I pet her?" to which she replied, "Of course." The little dog licked Natsumi's face as Natsumi laughed. "You're as cute as ever, Honey-chan."

While Natsumi and Hachiko were engrossed with Honey, Yumi eyed Tetsu and said shyly, "Hi, Tetsu-kun," and smiled at Hakase, to which he blushed a little.

Tetsu smiled at Yumi and bowed a little. He looked around as if he was looking for something.

"What is it, Tetsu?" Hakase inquired.

"Ah, I was just wondering where Ira Ira-kun is– HEY!"

A menacing cackle sounded from behind Tetsu, whose person just messed up Tetsu's neatly-combed hair. Tetsu turned around furiously to find a spiky black-hair-with-green-streaked chara doubling over with laughter.

"IRA IRA-KUN, I'LL GET YOU FOR THIS!" Tetsu cried out angrily with a popping red vein on his forehead. He started to chase Ira Ira, who immediately took on the game of "Tag", and still cackling uncontrollably.

The other charas were watching amusingly as Tetsu made threats at Ira Ira, who in turn shouted out annoying insults at Tetsu, which made the red-head grow more hot-headed by the second.

Ira Ira is Kaita's chara. He is mischievous, teasing, and a prankster, and loves to play pranks on others, especially charas. He was born out of Kaita's desire to be a harmless prankster.

Natsumi saw that Tetsu was clearly not happy about his messed-up hair, so she was set upon stopping this chase. She flew after them, crying out, "Tetsu-kun! Ira Ira-kun! Please stop!"

It took a few moments before Tetsu realized someone was calling his name. Despite his desire to chase Ira Ira some more, he recognized the voice as Natsumi's and felt an inclination to stop. Natsumi, grateful that he finally stopped, came up to him. Ira Ira saw that he was no longer being chased, so he, bored, started to go back to the group with a stifled chuckle until Natsumi called after him, "Ira Ira-kun, come here a minute, please!"

Ira Ira sighed and turned towards Natsumi's and Tetsu's direction. As I said before, Natsumi has a positive influence on everyone, so even Ira Ira would feel inclined to come when he was told to by Natsumi.

The black-haired prankster came to them, and Natsumi requested, "Ira Ira-kun, stand here across from Tetsu-kun, please," with a pleasant smile.

Ira Ira did so. When he looked up, he saw Tetsu give a deathly glare at him. Ira Ira returned it with an I-got-you smirk, which boiled Tetsu's anger up again and started to punch him, but Natsumi stopped him. The hot-head retreated, though his anger was still boiling.

Natsumi began, "Now, I don't know what happened for you two to chase around each other like that, but I do know that it doesn't make any of you happy."

"It's fun for me," Ira Ira spoke up with a mischievous grin on his face.

"That doesn't mean that it's fun for everybody or makes others happy," Natsumi reasoned. "Now let's solve the problem by combing Tetsu-kun's hair, which he so dearly cherishes." With that, Natsumi asked Tetsu for his comb, to which he got it out of his big apron pocket, and started combing his hair, which Tetsu blushed at.

Ira Ira saw this and grinned mischievously, knowing that Tetsu liked Natsumi. He decided he would press him on this matter later, but not with Natsumi around.

"There, all done!" Natsumi said, an accomplished smile on her face. She gave Tetsu back the comb, which Tetsu took shyly and put it back into his pocket.

"Problem solved! Let's go back to the group," the bright chara smiled at them and started to go off to that direction, with the other two closely behind.

When they got there, Hakase asked Tetsu teasingly, "Had fun, huh, Tetsu?"

"Oh, shut up," he replied, screwing up his face into a disgusted look. Hakase chuckled.

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**Gee, I suppose this story will be longer than I thought. Well, I hope you'll be patient for the next chapter also!**

**I didn't list the new chara's outfits because it would kind of take up space. But don't worry, I think I'll try making a little website that lists this story's characters, charas, personalities, trivia, and appearances, so I'll make that when I finish the last chapter.**


	4. Two Little Lovebirds

"Children," Amu said, referring to her kids, niece, and nephew, "This here is Tadashi-kun and Sei-kun. Be good friends with them, okay?"

She had one of each hand on Tadashi and Sei's shoulders, thus having their shoulders touch each other. One of them, Tadashi, had a sour look on his face and looked like he didn't want to be here. Sei, his slightly younger brother, had a calm and curious countenance.

Aki finally spoke up. "Whoa! They look exactly alike!"

The other children were fascinated by the two brothers, both with dark red hair and red eyes. Even the charas were interested.

Amu smiled and stated, "Yes, they do, because they're identical twins. Don't they look like their father?" she waved her hand in the direction of a blonde-haired man who was sitting in the living room next to his dark red-haired wife, talking to the Soumas and Ikuto.

"How cool! Identical twins! How old are they?" Kiku asked, trying to get in front of the small crowd.

"We're four," Sei spoke up, warming up to the strangers. Tadashi, who really did not want to be with them, tried to get out of Amu's hold, but failed. He tried harder and grunted, but Amu held him tight. After three tries, he started to whine and cry and scream, "MA~MA~!"

The dark red-haired woman heard the disturbance and immediately tended to Tadashi, who immediately stopped crying and buried his head into her breasts. She smiled apologetically and rubbed Tadashi's back. Sei, however, was undaunted by his older twin brother's screams.

"I'm sorry that Tadashi is such a bother, Amu-san," Tadase's wife said, bowing her head.

"It's okay, Shiina, really! I'm sure that Tadashi-kun will have a good time with new friends, right, Tadashi-kun?" Amu smiled, looking at Tadashi's face that was moved to the side.

Tadashi, who was now completely calmed down, smiled contentedly and replied, "Yeah! Will Mama be with me, too?"

"Now, Tadashi, you know that Mama can't be with you all the time, don't you?" Shiina scolded with a stern look on her face, standing her son up on his feet.

Tadashi frowned and said disappointedly, "But Tadashi wants to be with Mama…"

"Tadashi-kun, I'm sure that you'll have _so_ much fun with these _onii-chans _and _onee-chans _that you wouldn't even want to go back home!" Amu smiled warmly. The dark red-haired boy looked doubtingly at her.

"Do it for Mama's sake, okay? And then I'll give you something good to eat tomorrow," Shiina promised, locking her pinky finger with Tadashi's smaller one.

Tadashi considered it for a while, then finally said, "Okay… for Mama's sake!" and gave her a big smile. His mother smiled back, got up from the floor, and went back to sit on the couch with her husband.

The red eyes watched as he saw his mother "far away" again and started to look panicky. But, remembering that this was for her sake, he tried to stop worrying and turned back to the awkward little crowd.

"Okay! Do you think you'll be okay, Tadashi-kun? If so, I'll let you guys play with each other," Amu decided, smiling. Tadashi nodded a little uncertainly, but nevertheless determinedly. Seeing this, the pink-haired woman sauntered off to the adult crowd.

Tadashi looked shyly at the big brothers and sisters (except for Ai). Unexpectedly, he bowed politely to them and said, "Nice to meet you. My name is Tadashi."

Akito stood in front of the small crowd, bending to their height. "Hi, Tadashi-kun, Sei-kun! My name is Akito," he introduced himself, smiling.

"Hello, Akito-_nii-san_," Sei said with a friendly smile. Akito was surprised because he'd never been called a "_nii-san_" outside of his family. He quite liked it, too.

The rest of the gang introduced themselves, then all that was left was Ai.

"Aren't you gonna introduce yourself, too?" Miu asked her.

Ai hid behind Akito's pant legs, holding onto him like a child would hide behind his mother. She had a slight blush on her face.

"Come, Ai, don't be shy, now," Akito said softly, gently pulling Ai away from his pant leg and putting her in front of him so that she could face the Hotori twins.

Ai looked down at her feet for a little while, then she peeked up at the boy's faces.

"H-Hello… My name is Ai," she said in her bird-like voice as she bowed. "Nice to meet you," she smiled shyly at them.

Sei was awestruck. "_Kawaii onnanoko da…_" **(A/N: Translation: "What a cute girl…")** he murmured, blushing.

"Cute girl?" Tadashi scoffed. "What's so cute about her? She won't even look us directly in the face!"

Sei looked disapprovingly at his older brother. "Tadashi, don't speak ill of her…"

"It's okay, Sei-kun," Ai said softly. "I like him anyway," she smiled brightly.

Tadashi looked surprisingly at the blue-head, then turned his head away in a grunt.

The younger twin smiled at her and said, "Let's have fun together!" and took both of her hands, fire in his eyes.

Ai blushed and replied enthusiastically, "Yeah!" and she took him to where the games were, leaving the older crowd in a daze.

The oldest child, Aki, grinned at them. "Looks like we got two little lovebirds, eh, Akito?" she hinted while nudging him.

"Eh~ no fair! No boy has ever fallen in love with _me _yet!" Kiku whined. Akito chuckled.

Kaita screwed up his face in a disgusted look. "If that's what falling in love looks like, I don't think _I _will ever fall in love!"

Tadashi grunted. "Let them do whatever they want, but I don't want anything to do with her," he said while turning his head away and crossing his arms.

Miu smiled happily. "It's so cute seeing them together~!"

Natsumi, the first chara to speak up since the introduction, clasped her hands together dreamy-like and said, "Ahh~ how happy they'll be!" Tetsu looked at her dreamy-like pose and blushed.

Akito sighed and looked at Sei and Ai as they were now playing a little game amongst the activities and games set up. He somehow got the feeling that they were going to keep in contact for a long time.

_Sei-kun, I hope you will take care of Ai in the future…_

* * *

**Sorry it's so short! But I've kind of run out of ideas, so… I hope it's interesting enough! **

**I got the twins' personalities from a set of male twins that I know. The older one cried for a while when his mom went away, but the younger twin was just calm and undaunted by his brother's whines. The younger twin also seemed to like me, which is why I made Sei to like Ai at a young age. Of course, I gave Tadashi and Sei their own unique personality traits (like Tadashi being a slight tsundere).**


	5. Hide and Seek

"… Eighteen, nineteen, twenty!"

The indigo-haired boy turned around from the tree trunk he was covering his eyes on.

His golden eyes searched the spacious park where they were playing hide-and-seek with the rest of the kids. All of the families have arrived, have eaten, and then decided to go to the park to rest a little. Some of the children wanted to play hide-and-seek, while some others either played tag or just conversed with each other.

"_Mou ii kai?" _**(A/N: Translation – "Are you ready?")** Naoki Fujisaki shouted loud enough for the other contestants to hear.

"_Mada da yo!" _**(A/N: Translation – "Not yet!")** he heard a few voices shout back at him. He turned around and counted to twenty once again.

After counting, Naoki turned around and shouted "Are you ready?" again, this time having a couple of voices respond, "_Mou ii yo!" _**(A/N: Translation – "It's okay!")**

Relieved that they were finally ready, he set off to find Kaita, Riya Sanjou, Hikari Fujisaki, Sei, and Ai.

As he was walking around, the nine-year-old grumbled to himself, "Why did I have to lose to _janken _to be the _oni_? I'd rather be the hider…" he sighed. "I guess I can't help it."

He searched around a tree until he found his five-year-old younger brother, Hikari, bundled up in a ball with his blond hair sticking out.

"I found Hikari!" Naoki triumphantly said, grabbing Hikari, setting him off in a fit of giggles. He put his brother down and instructed him to go to the "pen". Then he went off to find the others.

He found Kaita and Riya eventually, and all that was left were Sei and Ai. Naoki set off to find them. The children sat down and watched him.

Hikari's yellow eyes noticed something black hovering over Riya's dark green hair. He stood up and reached to grab it, but the little chara was too quick for him. Riya noticed the movement and faced towards Hikari. "What's wrong?" she asked him, her cool but soft brown eyes questioning.

"Just now, I saw a little boy in a tuxedo around Riya-_onee-chan_'s head, and I thought he might be bothering you, so I tried to grab him," he cutely explained.

Before eight-year-old Riya could reply, Hikari exclaimed, "Oh, look! Kaita_-onii-chan_ has a little bad-looking person over his head!" he ran over to try to grab it, but Ira Ira flew out of his grasp, grinning. The cocky grin motivated Hikari to chase him even more, so he tried jumping and grabbing him, but failed. Ira Ira grinned and grinned every time Hikari made an attempt to catch him, and he started to cackle menacingly before long.

When Ira Ira got way out of Hikari's reach, the blond-haired boy decided that he would wait until the strange little chara would come down.

Hikari faced Kaita, who was grinning at the five-year-old's futile attempts to catch the prankster chara, and confidently said, "Don't worry, Kaita_-onii-chan_. I will catch the bad person for you!"

Both Kaita and Ira Ira reached their limit and laughed so long and hard that tears were coming out of their eyes and they were hiccupping when they finally stopped. Hikari just stood there, puzzled at the sudden laughter, and almost forgot to grab Ira Ira when he came down to Kaita's side. Riya was also chuckling a bit.

The brown-haired boy wiped his tears, and said between hiccups, "Hikari, this chara isn't a bad one. He just likes to play harmless pranks, that's all. Ira Ira doesn't mean any harm."

"Oh," Hikari said, content. He felt a little embarrassed at his assumption, but he giggled in spite of himself.

The black-haired-with-green-streaks chara faced Hikari and introduced himself. "My name is Ira Ira. Nice to meet you," he grinned, and chuckled a bit.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Hikari," the blond smiled, then frowned. "Is your name Ira Ira because you're always irritated? Is that why you have that popping vein on your head?" **(A/N: "Ira ira" in Japanese means "to be irritated".)**

Ira Ira cackled and replied, "No, it's because the pranks I play on people cause them to be irritated and maybe get a popping vein," he grinned, then whispered in his ear, "Watch this!"

He went over to the tuxedo chara, who all this time has been floating next to Riya, and said mischievously, "Hey, Kaito, your tuxedo shirt got dirty."

"Eh, really?!" Kaito exclaimed, examining his nice white shirt. While he was doing so, he felt something being taken out of his left hand.

"_KORA_! Give me back my wand!" Kaito exclaimed angrily, chasing after Ira Ira, who was cackling uncontrollably. "I'll give it back if you let me use it once!" he hollered back mischievously.

Kaito gained speed and flailed his arms. "No! If you use it wrongly, who knows what'll happen!"

"That's the fun of it, Kaito!" the prankster cackled back.

Kaito chased and chased Ira Ira, having surprising stamina without his top hat falling off.

The magician chara was getting tired of chasing Ira Ira, so he shouted, "Fine, I'll let you use it! Just don't mess anything up!"

When Ira Ira heard that, he looked pleased and went over to Kaito, who glared at him. "And you better not use it on me!"

The prankster cackled. Kaito was getting irritated. "Just hurry up and use it, will you?!

"Ah, sorry, I think I won't after all," Ira Ira concluded nonchalantly, handing him back the wand.

Kaito was exasperated and exploded, "You mean I chased you all for nothing?!" he looked so enraged that he looked as if he might break his own wand, but controlled it. A popping vein appeared on his forehead.

Ira Ira left him that way, giving a low chuckle. He came back to Hikari, who was watching the scene with a worried look on his face, and said, "See? All I do is harmless pranks, although they may irritate a lot of people, which is what I do," he grinned.

The five-year-old nodded, still looking a bit concerned.

Meanwhile, back to Naoki…

The indigo-haired boy searched and searched for the two four-year-olds, but couldn't find them anywhere. Naoki sighed. "Either they must be really good hiders or they keep changing hiding places…"

He was feeling a little thirsty, so he decided to stop by the place where his parents were talking to Ikuto, Amu, Tadase, and Shiina.

His mother, Rima, wasn't talking at the moment, so Naoki went up to her and tugged on her sleeve. The short, pretty blonde looked up, smiled, and asked, "What is it, Naoki? Are you finished with your game?"

Rima's son shook his head. "No, I'm still looking for Sei-kun and Ai-chan. I've been searching for them for three minutes, and still haven't found them. I'm thirsty, _Okaa-san_. Do you have any drink?"

She shuffled around in her bag and found the thermos with unsweetened tea in it. Rima handed it to Naoki, and he screwed the top off, poured the tea in the cap, and drank thirstily out of it. He did that two more times until he was satisfied. Naoki handed back the thermos and continued his search.

You may ask, "Where could Sei and Ai be? Are they in trouble?!"

Well, let's find out for ourselves.

When Sei and Ai were finding hiding places, Sei spotted a large hole in the ground, pretty far away from the rest. He walked over to the hole and saw that the hole wasn't too deep and that he could crouch in it. The dark red-haired boy looked over to Ai and saw that she was still searching for a hiding place. So he had an idea.

"Ai-chan!" he said after he reached her. Ai turned around shyly with a questioning look in her eyes. He took one of her hands and said eagerly, "I found a hiding place big enough to hold us! Come on!" and led her to the hole.

Ai looked down uncertainly at the depth of the hole. Sei noticed this and assured her, "Don't worry, I'll make sure you won't get hurt!" with a big smile. The shy blue-head blushed at his smile, smiled back, and replied, "Okay!"

Sei got down in the hole and helped Ai get down. Then he crouched against the wall of the hole and told Ai to do the same. So now they were both just sitting there, waiting to be found.

Ai was noticing something she hadn't felt before. Her little heart seemed to beat faster when she was near the kind little red-head, and they had only met today. She had never felt like this when she was with someone else, not even with her beloved daddy. She decided to tell Sei about it.

"Sei-kun…" she began in a soft voice. Sei turned to her. "I don't know why, but my heart seems to beat a little faster when I'm with you. I haven't felt like this before with anyone else," Ai looked at him with a little blush on her face. "Do you know what it could be?"

The four-year-old looked a little puzzled. "You know what, Ai-chan? My heart does that, too when I'm with you… I wonder what it could be?"

Ai's eyes widened. "Really? You feel like that, too? I wonder if there's some sort of connection between us," she pondered.

Sei rested the side of his head on his raised knees, also pondering. Then he smiled. "Well, whatever it is, it sure makes me feel happy. Let's always be together, okay?" he reached for Ai's little hand and squeezed it. Both of their hearts did a little flip when they touched. They were too young to understand what romantic love was, but they were old enough to somehow know that they would never be separated.

They kept holding each other's hands for minutes. Sei noticed how long it was taking for Naoki to find them and remarked, "I wonder what's happening with Naoki-nii-san… I hope he hasn't forgotten to find us, or just give up," he worried.

Ai saw his worry and squeezed his hand. "Don't worry, Sei-kun. I'm sure that you found such a good hiding place that Naoki-onii-chan has trouble finding us," she assured him with a cute smile. Sei blushed at the flattery.

In the end, Naoki couldn't find them, and yelled out for them to come out, which they did. Naoki praised them for finding such a good hiding place, and they beamed at each other. The hide-and-seek players all gathered around and inquired whether they should play the game again or play tag with the other children. Most of them decided to play tag, and the rest that wanted to play hide-and-seek were few, so they also decided to play tag.

As the hide-and-seek gang were nearing the tag gang, Naoki called out to anybody who would answer, "Can we play _onigokko_, too?"

"Yeah, just run along with the rest of us!" Akito answered, currently being chased by Tadashi, who was vigorously trying his best to tag anybody he could.

And so the afternoon went by with the children playing tag, until their parents said it was time to go back to the house.

* * *

**Finally done after more than a week! Sorry it took so long, but it's kind of hard to come up with ideas. I still have two children to introduce, so hopefully I'll find time to introduce them in the next chapter, which will hopefully be the last one!**

**And, I didn't put this in the last chapter, but if you're wondering, Shiina isn't part of the original Shugo Chara cast; I just made her up so Tadase could have a partner, as I'm not too comfortable with him with anybody else. Let's pretend that they all met her in high school.**

**Here are the Japanese words that I put in the story just for some variety:**

_**Janken – **_**Rock, paper, scissors; a game that Japanese children play when they're choosing somebody to be "it", or just for fun.**

_**Oni – **_**Demon; they also use this word to call somebody "it".**

_**Kora! – **_**"Hey!", not as a greeting.**

_**Okaa-san – **_**Mother/Mom**

_**Onii-chan/Onee-chan/Onii-san/Onee-san – **_**Older brother/Older sister; this can be used by children when addressing somebody you respect or to someone you consider close (adults don't use that, in that case, and you wouldn't normally call an old person or an adult this unless you're his/her actual brother/sister).**

_**Onigokko - **_**Tag**


	6. Games and Goodbyes

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the games mentioned here!**

* * *

"So what do you guys wanna play?" Akito asked the twelve children that were gathered in the game room. They had just finished dinner, and their parents were talking in the living room. "We have Uno, Rummikub, Karuta, Bingo…"

"I think we should play a game where everybody is able to, like Bingo or Uno," a soft voice spoke up. Akito looked at the pretty indigo-colored long-haired girl and smiled.

"You're right, Rina-chan… or we could split into two or three groups. That way, since I'm sure there will be kids that want to play a different game than us, there won't be any unsatisfaction."

Riya eyed the Rummikub game curiously. "This looks like it needs some thinking to do… I want to play that."

"Okay… people who want to play Rummikub, raise their hands!" Akito said. Naoki, Riya, and Kiku raised their hands.

One little girl with orange-brown hair in pigtails shoved her way through the taller crowd and searched the table frantically. Then she spotted a game that apparently she played with her family before, grabbed it, and lifted it up triumphantly. "Ayaka wants to play this!"

"Me, too!" Sei and Ai said in unison. They looked at each other wide-eyed and blushed.

So the children got split up in four groups. The Karuta group included Aki, Akito, Kaita, and Miu (who was to be the reader of the cards), the Uno group included Tadashi, Hikari, and Rina Fujisaki (who is good with kids), the Rummikub group included Naoki, Riya, and Kiku, and finally, the Bingo group included Ayaka Sanjou, Sei, and Ai.

Let's see what the Karuta group is doing…

"I won't lose to you, guys!" Aki competitively said. She pumped up her fist determinedly and had a "come at me" look on her face.

Akito smiled at her determinedness, which was typical of her. "We won't lose either. Right, Kaita-kun?" to which Kaita nodded, seemingly undaunted by his older sister's competitiveness.

"Are you ready, guys?" Miu asked cheerfully. The cards were all set scattered among the floor. "I'm going to start reading… don't go until I say you can, okay?" she cleared her throat and started reading the sentence. "Now go find "ri"! Go!"

All three run-walked to the scattered cards and searched for the _hiragana _character "ri" (り). Both Aki and Kaita spotted it at the same time and slammed their hands on it, with Kaita's hand under Aki's hand. Kaita grinned at his victory and held up his card. Aki glared at him and growled, "I won't lose next time!" Then they returned to their original place.

Miu once again read another sentence. Then they all ran to the scattered cards to find the _hiragana _character "a" (あ). Within two seconds, Aki slammed her hand on the pictured card and held it up. "_Yatta zo!"_ she grinned triumphantly. Then they all ran back.

Now let's move over to the Bingo group.

"Yay! Bingo!" Ayaka exclaimed and jumped in excitement. Sei smiled at her. "Calm down, Ayaka-chan. I'm going to roll the Bingo ball now."

He turned and turned the Bingo ball, the little balls making a delightful sound. Ayaka leaned her elbows on the coffee table, eagerly watching them turn. Then finally, a little pea-sized ball came out. Sei picked it up and read, "Two one." (he hasn't quite learned the bigger numbers)

"Two one! I got that!" Ayaka squealed excitedly and punched in the number. Ai also punched in one.

Sei smiled sadly. "I don't have number two one…" Ai gave him a sympathetic look, and then Ayaka urged, "C'mon, let's see what the next number is!"

"Okay, then, Ai-chan, you roll it," Sei offered, smiling. Ai blushed and accepted the offer.

The little bluette started to turn the handle, but not before Ayaka rudely shoved Ai's hand off the handle and replaced it with her own hand. "I want to do the next roll!"

Sei frowned. "Ayaka-chan, you shouldn't be selfish like that. Let Ai-chan do it."

"But I'm older than her! I wanna do it!" she protested, gripping her hand on the handle. Then she vigorously turned the ball and two balls came out. Ayaka beamed and grabbed the two little balls before Sei could say anything. "One and three nine!" she exclaimed. Then she punched one of the holes in her card. Sei sighed and looked at his card, eyes lightening up when he saw one of the numbers and punched it in. Ai sadly put down her card without any results.

"Can you let Ai-chan roll now?" Sei asked Ayaka gently. Ayaka smiled and nodded her head off. "Yeah! I'll be nice and let Ai do it."

Ai shyly looked at her and said, "Thank you, Ayaka-chan…" then she slowly but steadily turned the handle until a little ball came out. She picked it up with her little fingers and said softly, "Ten."

Ayaka looked at her card and gave a grumpy look, but she punched in a hole anyway. Ai looked over at her card (as she was standing next to Ayaka) and pointed out, "Ayaka-chan, you don't have a number ten."

"But I have eleven, that's close enough!" she justified herself, smiling innocently, her light blue eyes sparkling.

Ai shook her head and said timidly, "No, no, you have to follow the rules, Ayaka-chan. Even if it's a close number, you can't do that."

Ayaka gave a sour look at her. Sei reprimanded her, saying, "Ayaka-chan, it's only fair that you follow the rules, and then everyone can be happy. It's much better when everyone's happy, isn't it?"

The four-year-old looked back at her Bingo card and thought for a while. Then she sighed and put the number eleven back where it was. Then she looked up, smiling brightly. Sei and Ai smiled back.

"I guess you're right. It is more fun this way!" Ayaka remarked after a few more minutes of playing.

What's going on with the Rummikub group?

"Hmmm…." pondered Kiku as she looked at her tiles. Riya and Naoki already put out their thirty points worth of tiles, while Kiku has not been able to put out that much. Finally, Kiku sighed and took a tile from the bag. "I can't go."

Naoki took the bag from her and eyed her mischievously. "Looks like the tiles hate you, huh, Kiku?" he teased. The blue-headed girl smiled at him, blushing.

"Are you sure this game isn't too hard for you, Kiku-chan?" Riya inquired.

Kiku sat up straight and tried to look grown-up. "Oh, no, I'm fine, Riya-senpai. I like hard games." Riya chuckled.

Naoki scanned the coffee table, looking for any possible places he could put his tiles. The nine-year-old's face lit up and took a tile from his batch, placing it in between a set of numbers. He gave the bag to Riya, saying, "Your turn."

Riya pondered for a moment, looking back and forth between her tiles and the tiles set out on the table. Occasionally she would make little motions with her right hand, trying to see which tile would go where in order for the one tile she wanted to play would be put down.

In school, Riya is especially good at math, but she's also pretty good at all other subjects, save for P.E. She likes to play puzzles, Sudoku, and games that require thinking. I suppose you would call her the stereotypical Asian?

Finally, the dark green-headed girl shook her head sadly, finding it pretty much impossible to play. She passed the bag to Kiku.

Kiku scanned her board of tiles solemnly. Her face lighting up tremendously, she vigorously put down three 10's, all of a different color, adding up to thirty. Grinning all the time, she put down all the tiles that she could play, almost emptying her board. Naoki and Riya looked surprisingly at her, for her board had been nearly full just a minute ago. Now she was down to six tiles (she had twenty before), making her the closest to winning.

"_Sugeh–!_" Naoki exclaimed, eyes wide. "You really do look smarter than you look."

Kiku smiled proudly, blushing a little at his compliment.

And now, finally, we come to the Uno group.

Rina was dealing out the cards while Tadashi and Hikari were silently waiting, not really talking to each other. Even when she was dealing the cards, both of the boys could see some elegance in it.

"Wasn't the dinner yummy, Tadashi-kun?" the eight-year-old smiled pleasantly at the redhead. Tadashi, with arms folded, said, "Yeah…" turning his head away. He didn't exactly want to be away from his mommy, but he remembered the promise she made with him, so he would be good for now.

Hikari looked around the room curiously with his golden eyes. He takes a lot after his mother appearance-wise, and also holds some traits that Rima has. The little blonde got up from his sitting position and started to walk towards the kitchen. "Where are you going, Hikari-kun?" Rina inquired.

Hikari turned around and pointed towards the kitchen. "Going to get snacks, _onee-chan._" he said softly, and walked off. Rina smiled and thought, "_He might be just a little shy around new people_."

The indigoette finished dealing the cards and patiently waited for Hikari to come back. She decided to try to start a conversation with Tadashi, who was not talking at all.

"So, Tadashi-kun, what things do you like?" she asked, smiling elegantly.

Tadashi's red eyes eyed her and looked a little grumpy. But, remembering his manners, he muttered, "Mommy."

"Ahh, you love your mama, don't you?" she nodded understandingly. "What other things do you like?"

Tadashi seemed to stare off into space and didn't answer for several seconds. Finally, he said, "I like playing outside, and I like juice."

"Those are good things!" Rina smiled, and then she went into her lecture mode. "Tadashi-kun, you seem unwilling to play with others, especially away from your mama. If you keep being that way, people will think you're weird and cold. So warm up a little and have fun, okay?" she reached over to take his hand, to which Tadashi allowed.

The red eyes looked over at her with fire in them, and he had a small curve in his mouth. "Okay, I will," he answered solemnly. By this time, Hikari had come back with a few cookies and a cup of _Nacchan_™ orange juice (**A/N: I do not own this)**.

"All right! Are we ready to play?" Rina exclaimed, pumping her fist in the air. Hikari beamed and raised his fist, with Tadashi doing the same. Both said in unison, "Yeah!"

And then they were off.

You might be wondering where the children's charas were at this time. Well, they were playing a game of their own, known as none other than: Tag! They were playing in a different room wide enough for them to fly around, so they wouldn't disturb the others.

"HAHAHA! Tetsu's the _oni!_" Ira Ira cackled as he swiftly touched Tetsu's shirt and made his getaway. The red-headed chara sighed, dreading the thought of getting his hair messed up as he would be flying around.

Hakase noticed his hesitation and called to him with laughter in his voice, "Don't be afraid to get a little messy, Tetsu!"

Tetsu glared at him and started to chase him, with Hakase grinning. When Hakase was out of his league, he started to chase the one nearest to him, which was Yumi. The black-haired chara giggled as she purred, "Catch me if you can, Tetsu-kun~"

Natsumi laughed and laughed, enjoying the fun. "Kyahaha! Tetsu's chasing me, what should I do?" Tetsu suddenly blushed at her pleasant radiance and went to chase Hachiko, who was next nearest to him.

One chara, while not being chased, ran to get as far away as possible from the _oni._ She looked back behind her, and, in doing so, ran into the wall. She clutched at her temples (she couldn't hold her head because she had a tall, white patissiere's hat on) and groaned. "Why do I have to be so clumsy?"

This chara is known as Ichigo, and she is Rina's chara. She had dark brown hair that's held in two buns, dark brown eyes, a tall, white patissiere's hat on her head, a white chef's outfit, brown shoes, and a whisk in her right hand. She also has two little cakes holding her buns in place.

"Are you okay?" a voice behind her asked. She turned around and found Kaito standing there, concern on his face.

"Ah, yes, I'm okay, Kaito. Thanks," she smiled thankfully. Kaito smiled back, putting his hand behind his head. They got along with each other quickly because they both wear tall hats.

"I'm gonna get you, Kaito-kun!" Tetsu cried mischievously, racing towards the two. Kaito's eyes bulged out as Tetsu unexpectedly rammed his head into his stomach like an angry bull. The neat freak grinned triumphantly and raced off towards the other direction, hollering, "Catch me if you can!"

Kaito doubled over, clutching his stomach. "Ow, ow, oww…." he groaned.

Ichigo, who horrifyingly watched the scene, went over to Kaito and asked with concern in her voice, "Are you okay?"

"Ergh… I think I will be," he moaned with pain. "Do you think you could call for a break? It'll take a while for me to recover."

"Sure thing," Ichigo agreed, and went off to tell the others to take a break. Later on, Tetsu went over to him and apologized, bowing over and over again. "Please excuse me for my carelessness," he kept saying.

Hakase smiled knowingly. "How come Tetsu, who is usually always so neat, tidy, and careful, rammed into Kaito's stomach, knowing that it would hurt him?" he rubbed his chin. Tetsu regretted what he did, so much that tears started to fall down his cheeks. "I'm sorry. When I get energized in games, I tend to be careless. _Gomennasai!"_

Natsumi came over and rubbed his back. "There, there, Tetsu-kun. Cheer up! At least you'll know to be more careful next time. And it's not like you injured someone so much that they died. There, there…" she crooned, wiping his tears off his cheeks. Then she hugged him, rubbing his back and saying, "It's okay, it's okay…" like an affectionate mother while the rest of the charas awkwardly tried to look at something else.

When the emotional scene was finally over, Tetsu apologized to Kaito one last time, to which Kaito said it wasn't a big deal now.

"Children, it's time to go home!" Amu called to the kids playing in the game room. It was around 8:30 PM, and some of the families had to go a long way to go back to their home. From the game room, you could hear some of the kids protesting and groaning and asking, "We'll come back, won't we?"

The _genkan _area was crowded with the families ready to go out. Amu hugged all of her elementary school girl friends, while the men just talked with each other. Some of the kids talked and hugged as a final goodbye.

"Let's arrange a date where we can all meet again, not just for a day, but maybe for a week," Amu offered, smiling. "It'll be like a vacation!"

"I agree!" Yaya childishly exclaimed, and some of the others heartily agreed. She's thirty years old now, but still holds some of the traits from her childhood. The children were excited at the suggestion.

"Let's go, Tadashi and Sei," Tadase gently prompted them. Tadashi looked back at the others with a somewhat longing look on his face, but turned and got on his shoes.

Sei, however, went over to Ai, who was shyly hiding behind Akito. "Ai-chan, let's meet again!" the redhead said cheerfully. Ai gave a timid smile and nodded.

Sei then, unexpectedly, gave her a tight hug, to which they both blushed at. Ai also put her little arms around Sei. "I had fun today!" the four-year-old redhead told her, smiling. "Me, too," Ai answered softly.

Then, Sei, letting go of her, took her by the hand and led her to his parents, pleading with his eyes, asking, "Can she come with us?"

Tadase laughed, noticing that his son has already taken a liking to a girl. "She might feel uncomfortable around us, Sei-kun. And I'm sure her parents wouldn't want her to go yet."

Sei smiled, as he asked the request half-seriously, and didn't feel too disappointed. Ai blushed at his question. Ikuto, who wasn't talking with anybody at the moment, solemnly looked at the two toddlers, wondering how their relationship will be in the future.

As a final goodbye, Sei turned around and looked at Ai, smiling and holding both of her hands eagerly. "I like you!" he said as loud as possible. The crowd, who was before talking, stopped at that statement and looked to see who said it. With eyes wide, they all oohed at the sight of Sei affectionately kissing both of Ai's cheeks.

Sei beamed and said, "I'll see you soon!" and finally put on his shoes. Ai just stood there with her face red, wondering at the feeling of her rapidly beating heart.

"How cute!" Yaya exclaimed. She turned over to Tadase and Shiina and grinned. "Hey, don't you see some young love budding?"

Tadase smiled and nodded. The relationship vaguely reminded him of the crush he had with Amu. Tadashi just turned his head away, muttering, "Yuck…" apparently embarrassed by his twin brother's action.

After a few more minutes of chattering and noise-making and goodbyes, all of the families eventually went out of the Tsukiyomi house and drove to their respective areas.

Amu sighed heavily. "Boy, that was sure tiring, but it was fun, right, children?" she smiled at them, to which they nodded at eagerly.

"It's 9 o'clock now, kids. You better get to bed," Ikuto instructed. All children said, "Okay!" and went upstairs, Ai being the only one left.

"Daddy?" Ai said, tugging on his pant leg. Ikuto picked her up and said, "What is it, my little blueberry? You should go to bed."

Ai hugged his neck. "Daddy, I had this strange feeling in my heart whenever I was with Sei-kun. My heart seemed to beat faster, and I blushed whenever he smiled at me. Do you know what that feeling could be?"

Ikuto looked over at Amu, who was smiling knowingly. The blue-haired man stroked his daughter's hair as he said, "Well, Ai, you may be too young to understand it deeply, but that feeling may be what we call love."

"Love?" Ai leaned back, eyes wide. "Isn't that my name?"

Ikuto smiled and nodded. "Yes, sweetheart, it's the same meaning and the same _kanji_ as your name. You see, we named you "Ai" because that is what brought me and your mama together. And we also wished that you would come to love others, which you are already doing."

Ai pondered on that for a while. Then she said, "Can you tell me more about love?"

Amu put in, "Ai, it's time for you to go to bed. Perhaps we'll try to explain it to you tomorrow, okay?" The bluette nodded, a little disappointed. Ikuto put her down and said "goodnight", and Ai went up the stairs.

Amu smiled the smile when parents see their children grow up. "It's amazing, isn't it, that even at so young an age, Ai can already feel the effects of romantic love, even though she doesn't quite understand the feeling yet."

Ikuto nodded solemnly, remarking, "Our children are growing up and becoming independent spirits of their own. Pretty soon they might have families of their own."

"And we must prepare them for the battles that'll come ahead," Amu added, a new determination in her.

* * *

_**Finally **_**done! I hope the ending is satisfactory enough. The website will be on the end of my profile, so please look at it to learn additional information! **

**List of terms/Japanese words:**

_**Rummikub – **_**Look it up.**

_**Karuta – **_**A Japanese game, but too lazy to describe in detail, so look it up.**

_**Yatta zo! – **_**A somewhat boyish way of saying, "I did it!"**

_**Sugeh! – **_**A truncated form of the Japanese word "sugoi", which means "amazing", used mostly by boys.**

_**Gomennasai – **_**The polite way of saying, "I'm sorry" in Japanese.**

_**Genkan – **_**A small area in front of the door where you take off and put on your shoes.**

_**Kanji - **_**Chinese characters**


End file.
